Chapter 2
“Lils!”
“Remussss!”
The two friends cackled as they ran toward each other, both drowned in sweat from the heat, but smiling nonetheless, just happy to see one another in person again. It felt like eons since Remus had seen his best mate properly, with all of the unpacking he had to help his mum with and what felt like the busiest week trying to organise shit for school and everything just felt nuts. Seeing Lily automatically calmed him, with her arms wide, running toward him with her knee-length, tartan skirt hanging in the wind; Remus could breathe easily again. With her, everything that tortured his dreams from the memories of last year were gone, and replaced with love and comfort.
“I missed you dick” Lily shouted into Remus’ ear as she enveloped him in a tight, warm hug.
“Yeah yeah me too” pushing her away and rolling his eyes, but secretly happy to have the affection again from his closest friend. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they started walking back in the direction she had come from.
“You nervous?” Lily questioned knowingly, he didn’t even need to glance over to know that she was giving him that look she always did. Like she knew him better than he knew himself (which she mostly did) and didn’t even need him to answer her.
“Nah course not. How could i be when I’ve got you by my side ranga?” remus teased as he tickled at her side.
I mean it was true though, Lily was seriously the sickest person he knew, with her bright red hair cut into the choppy mullet-esque haircut she’d given herself on a whim, after helping Remus shave his sides.
They’d both decided from a young age that there was no way gender was gonna separate them from talking about and wearing everything they liked and had in common. It had never occurred to either of them that it should be any other way.
It was weird seeing Lily in this posh, straight cut uniform, all un-lily-like, but he could still see little parts of her peaking through. A flash of silver jewellery stashed inside her nose where her septum was stowed, the same as his of course. The tiny sun studs in her lobes, matching to his moon ones. Remus smiled to himself a little with the knowledge that they were connected in too many ways to ever truly separate, defying distance and reason.
A tug on Remus’ arm startled him out of his thought, Lily alerting him that they were there.
“Well this is where i say goodbye pumpkin. I’m so proud of you Rem” she teased, pinching his cheeks and giving him a lip smacking kiss on one, on her tippy toes due to his tall stature (even when considerably slouched with terrible posture).
“EVANS!” a loud (Loud) voice called over to the pair, as they turned to see an Indian boy their age with a footy tucked under his arm, running toward them. The boy came to a stop infront of them, trying to discreetly catch his breathe as he ran a hand through his unruly hair. ‘Evans’, did not look impressed or interested in the slightest, throwing a glance Remus’ way to silently communicate a quick departure from this already unwanted conversation.
Before they could even make a move to leave, the boy interrupted asking, “Are you gonna introduce me to the newbie or what mate?” , still smiling and touching his dark hair, lightly tapping Remus on the shoulder to indicate who he was talking about.
Lily cautiously replied, “Right… yeah hi to you too James, uh, this is Remus, he’s just moved here. It’s his first day at St Gerry’s.”
“Sick! So nice to meet you, mate, if you’re a Friend of Evans’ then you are a friend of mine!” , Remus noticed he placed quite a bit of emphasis on the word ‘friend’ and wondered if he had seen the kiss Lils had given him before he came over.
Placing a tight arm around Lily, Remus replied, “Oh yeah mate, Lils and I are great ‘Friends’, she’s told me all about you!”
“Really??”
“No.”
The smile dropped from James’ face. “Pff right yeah… Haha okay”
“Lovely to meet you James, I am sure i’ll see you around but I really need to get Lilypads over here to school so.. See ya!”
Lily and Remus couldn’t contain their laughs any longer and dashed off, arm in arm to the school gate, pushing past James. “Okay, okay, goodbye for real this time i love you alright and don’t be dumb and not talk to anyone because you’re clearly too cool for them, you may just need to lower your standards slightly as not everybody can be as incredible as me.”
“Love you too Lily”, Remus rolled his eyes at the rest of the sentiment, giving her a hug and waving goodbye as her figure petered out into the distance, leaving him alone.